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History

History of the « World Thyroid Day » and the « International Thyroid Awareness Week »

During their AGM prior to the ETA congress in Leipzig, Germany, in September 2007, the members of Thyroid Federation International decided to create a “World Thyroid Day”. They choose the date of May 25th (where there is already a national thyroid awareness day in some Scandinavian countries). During the ETA congress, they put a little poster on their booth : “May 25th is World Thyroid Day”. Shortly afterwards, we created a logo, and decided that the first WTD would be celebrated in 2008.

It was also decided to send an application to the UN, to have May 25th put on the list of “World … days” – but as TFI, at this date, was no stand-alone organization, only a subgroup of TFC in Canada, this request was not accepted.

So, TFI never officially organized this “world thyroid day”, as a worldwide event – but various member organizations have events at this date, in particular in Scandinavia.

In their newsletter published in March 2008, the ETA announced the first “European Thyroid Day” on May 25th, 2008.

At the same time, the date of May 25th celebrates the creation of the ETA (created on May 25th, 1965, who celebrated it’s 40th anniversary on May 25th, 2005).

“European THYROID DAY – May 25th

May 25th has been designed as the anniversary of the European Thyroid Association, founded in Rome, May 25th, 1965, and in 2005 the ETA celebrated at the Jubilee Meeting in Athens, 40 years of excellence in clinical and experimental research.

We therefore propose the designation of May 25th as European Thyroid Day in the context of a number of several international efforts to implement a World Thyroid Day.

We strongly encourage all nationally or regionally based thyroid groups and networks in Europe to organise meetings on May 25th with the public, patients and media, in order to draw attention to thyroid-related problems and increase the visibility of the ETA.

The ETA Public Affairs Board, March 2008 »

In 2009, the ETA created a special logo

The Logo of the European Thyroid Day – 25th May

On the occasion of the European Thyroid Day, the Public Affairs Board of the ETA has produced in Athens a logo with the aim of increasing visibility and requesting the active participation of all who are involved in clinical and experimental thyroidology, sure of their continued commitment and dedication to all our thyroid patients.

We sincerely hope that the logo is to your liking and trust that it will offer additional inspiration to us for the celebration of this special day, one that hopefully will further stimulate both political and public interest in thyroid disease, the most common endocrine disease worldwide, while simultaneously promoting the ETA.

Leonidas Duntas , on behalf of the Public Affairs Board

Then ETA and ATA then decided to name the event the “World Thyroid Day”, instead of “European Thyroid Day”.

“Newswise — The American Thyroid Association, in cooperation with its sister associations the world over, supports World Thyroid Day, May 25, 2010, marking it as a day to promote awareness and understanding of thyroid health and the advances made in treating thyroid diseases.
World Thyroid Day was established in 2008 as part of a campaign led by the European Thyroid Association (www.eurothyroid.com) and the American Thyroid Association (www.thyroid.org) to emphasize the prevalence of thyroid diseases, to focus on the urgent need for education and prevention programs and to increase awareness of new treatment modalities.”

Established in 2008, World Thyroid Day highlights five major goals to: Increase awareness of thyroid health Promote understanding of advances made in treating thyroid diseases, Emphasize the prevalence of thyroid diseases, Focus on the urgent need for education and prevention programs, and Expand awareness of new treatment modalities.”

The ETA press statements mention the International Thyroid Awareness Week, created by TFI.

In 2008, TFI started to discuss with Merck-Serono, about the creation of an entire « International Thyroid Awareness Week” – it was decided have this in May, during the week around the World Thyroid Day. This was announced during a press conference at the international endocrine meeting in Istanbul, in March 2009.

The first International Thyroid Awareness Week took place in May 2009 (25th to 31th).

The campaign is endorsed by the European Thyroid Association (ETA), the American Thyroid Association (ATA), the Latin-American Thyroid Society (LATS), the Chinese Society of Endocrinology (CSE) and the Chinese Society of Nuclear Medicine (CSNM).

In 2012, the ITAW will be from May 21th to 27th, and the subjects will be “Thyroid and heart” and “Iodine deficiency”.

Language

Additional informations and languages over the websites of the member organisations of TFI